Mars and the Martians.
The Professor at this point turned about, took hold of the wire that
anchored his car and slowly pulled it to the ground. I saw I was about to
lose him, but felt that I ought not to try to detain him any longer.
I thanked him cordially for the invaluable visit he had given me and told
him I hoped it might be repeated. He nodded his head in acquiescence,
by which I understood, I might expect him some time again. I went on
to congratulate him on the happy home he was returning to and the long
agreeable rest that awaited him there after this fatiguing journey.
He smiled with his great eyes, and thanked me for my good wishes, but
said he was destined to no such rest as I wished him.
“From the moment I reach home,” said he, “I shall be as busy as I can be
for a week, preparing for my journey to Mars.”
“Your journey to Mars!” I exclaimed, “do you mean to say you go to Mars?”
“I have been there only three times myself; but our people have visited
that planet for the last ten thousand years, and there is quite a colony
of Lunarians permanently settled there looking after our interests.”
“So you have interests on Mars! Well now this is interesting. I wish I
had known this before. I would give anything for information about Mars
and the Martians.”
“Well it will take me a little time to arrange my car and I can talk to
you while I am doing it. You see our folks first went there about 10,000
years ago. They found the planet inhabited by two bitterly hostile races
that did little else than hunt each other.”
“They must be like our race then,” I observed.
“Yes,” he said, “in respect to their warlike instincts, but not as to
their forms. They are not human nor even vertebrate, but they are built
on the radiate plan. In short they are almost exactly like your star
fishes, but enormously bigger. I have seen them as large as twelve feet
across, though their more common size at maturity is six to eight feet.
The difference between the two races is that in one there are six spokes
or limbs radiating from the central body and in the other there are but
five. These limbs may be called either legs or arms, for they serve as
either and are sometimes one and sometimes the other. There is a fleshy
disc that forms the extremity of each limb, around which like the petals
of a flower are the fingers or toes, about like so many thumbs. There are
six of these in the six legged race and five in the five legged. This
disc with its thumbs forms the foot when the individual walks on land.
Two of them are always on the ground when he is standing, while the other
four are free to be used as hands, these thumbs being opposable and able
to grasp tolerably well.
“When they move on land it is always in an upright position, and they
roll along edgewise like a wheel destitute of felloes rolling on the ends
of the spokes. The central piece or hub constitutes the body including
the stomach, heart, lungs etc., as well as the sense organs, and brain.
The shape of the body is like a short stout cylinder tapering to a
rounded point at each end from one and a half to two feet in diameter,
the legs radiating from the sides. At the center of one end of this
body is the mouth, and the brain is located all round it in what we
would call the cheeks. There is no neck. There are six eyes immediately
around the mouth corresponding with the six legs, and just outside of
the eyes are six ear holes with closable lips, but no outside flaps or
shells. Outside of these are six breathing or blow holes leading into
the lungs. The mouth is round and the lips pucker together when closing.
There is no up or down to the Martian man, he stands equally well on any
pair of his legs and handles equally well with any of his hands, and
this is one of his greatest drawbacks. He has a thick horny skin which
appears to have been the only skeleton possessed by his ancestors, but
in addition, he has a light internal skeleton developed later by the
practice of standing and running on his limbs, which consists of a lot of
plates and hoop like ribs in the body, and what would pass for thigh and
leg bones in each limb. These last are hung with ball and socket joints
both at the articulation with the body and at the elbow and wrist. The
limbs are thus remarkably supple and when the Martian has a mind to,
he can walk extremely well sideways on two legs, that is, the head or
mouth going forward. And this is the way he should walk as our people
long ago pointed out to the Martians. He can walk on the same two feet
continuously edgewise as the wheel goes, but to do this he must merely
drag the rear foot up to the front one, and then throw the front one
forward again, or else sling them around past each other alternately in
an awkward manner as a cow does, for the reason that they are all on the
same plane. They greatly prefer the rolling motion and roll off on their
spokes with surprising speed, twenty miles an hour being a common gait on
a good road while some of the gigantic twelve footers can if necessary
reel off forty or more.
“They are so extremely fond of traveling off in this manner, that
it is difficult for them to confine their attention to any sedentary
employment. In order to attain a high civilization people must be
settled, and occupy themselves in some definite and constant modes of
employment. We pointed out to them long ago that they could never have
well differentiated arms and hands, unless they set apart certain of
their limbs to be used exclusively as arms, and never allow the hands
thus set apart for handling, to be used as feet.
“They objected, that, to confine themselves to two legs for walking
would reduce their gait to five or six miles an hour. This would be
a great drawback in war, and give their undifferentiated enemies the
advantage over them. This objection no longer has much weight, since war
has entirely ceased among them, the five legged race having long since
been defeated and practically exterminated, the few that are left being
glad to accept the most obscure positions that will secure them a bare
existence.”
“They must have been terrific warriors.”
“I saw a regiment of the six legged men drilling once. They were
marshaled on a large plain in two ranks, and rolled backward and forward
fast or slow according to command with great precision. They then were
commanded to load and advance. Around the body in the spaces between
the limbs they had artificial leathern pouches in which they carried
their ammunition. When they received the command to load they took out
of these pouches six stones one for each hand, and they advanced with
them clasped between their stumpy fingers. Then they were commanded to
double quick and discharge, upon which they advanced at terrific speed
and at a given signal let fly the stones one after another as the hand
containing it came to the proper position for the most effective throw.
The centrifugal force they acquired from the long revolving arms sent
them with tremendous force, some going at least a mile. In real war they
used cast iron bullets. They have plenty of iron on Mars and our folks
taught them how to smelt and work it. The regiment then charged up to
a hand to hand encounter with an imaginary enemy. In this charge they
were armed with a heavy circular iron disc in each hand, the disc having
a handle on the back side by which it was held. Then they charged with
terrific fury the discs flying around like lightning, chopping into mince
meat, (in imagination) any enemy that dared stand before them.
“The government is a despotism, the king having about the same authority
as the emperor of Russia, although he has a council of state whose
advice he listens to, and then does as he pleases. Since the subjugation
of the five legged race this king is the supreme ruler of the whole
planet. In some districts the people have made considerable advances in
civilization, confining themselves to the use of two legs, and walking
sidewise instead of rolling edgewise. But the king does not want all
his subjects to adopt these innovations, for he is very proud of his
soldiers and thinks them more efficient on six legs then two. Besides,
for certain kinds of labor, especially drawing wagons and carriages, the
old way is the best.”
“Why don’t they use horses,” I inquired, “or haven’t they any?”
“There are no such animals on Mars, nor in fact any other sort of animals
except radiates. There are many genera of these, mostly living in the
water and all small, except the dominant race, which I call the Martians.
“But there are great differences in the conditions of life amongst the
people of this race, some being fairly civilized while others are only
beasts of burden, and still others take the place of dumb machines. They
are specially adapted to act as wheels for light carriages. The axles
of the carriage are terminated at each end with a six pronged fork, the
prongs arranged in a circle or cylinder so that when a man is to play
the role of wheel, he is impaled on this fork one prong of it fitting
snugly between each pair of his legs. A vehicle of this kind is specially
adapted for soft roads as the broad disc like feet prevent sinking.
“The king has a phaeton mounted on twelve foot specimens of these lively
wheels, in which he dashes around at a thirty or forty mile gait when the
fancy strikes him. He also has a royal barge propelled by the same sort
of wheels, the legs acting as paddles.
“The king is imitated in his fads by the nobility and gentry as far as
they are able, and so one may quite often see these live wheel phaetons,
and live-paddle boats moving about.
“On the public roads, vehicles are used having wheels such as you use,
and drawn by these creatures, yoked together in pairs by the pronged
shafts or axles like those I just described. From 5 to 10 pairs may
sometimes be seen tugging at one of these heavy freight wagons. They
are tremendously strong and their strength counts for vastly more on
the planet Mars than it would on the earth, because Mars being so much
smaller everything weighs very much less. I have seen some of those big
fellows after rolling a few hundred yards with great speed give a leap
from the ground and fly whirling through the air for two hundred feet
before they lit.”
“They are a wonderful race,” said I, “but it seems difficult to connect
intelligence with a tribe of star fishes or to imagine they could ever
become highly developed. You know those we have on earth are very low in
the scale of existence.”
“Intelligence,” said the Professor, “does not depend on the form. Any
form on which it is possible for the forces of the environment such as
light heat contact etc., to make an impression, already has intelligence;
the ability to be impressed is intelligence. If any organism can
be impressed, then if you give it time enough it can be impressed
indefinitely, because each impression differentiates it and adds to
its sensitiveness, that is, its ability to be further impressed. The
reason why inferior races so generally remain inferior is the jealousy
and hostility of the superior. The dominant race is always hostile to
any other race that shows any intelligence, and proceeds to kill it off
for fear it will become a rival. It is thus that the race of man has
no rivals that compare with him in intelligence, no “connecting links”
between him and the monkeys. He was jealous of them and exterminated them.
“On the planet Mars there were never any forms of animal superior to the
stars so they have received all the development. Their differentiation
would have advanced further if the planet itself had not been so
backward. It has a great deal more water on it in proportion to its size
than the earth. It is destitute of high mountains, and very much of its
surface is but little raised above the level of the sea. A great deal
of it is marshy. It is only in recent geologic times that it has become
well suited to life on land. When it became so, the star fishes crawled
out, and by degrees became accustomed to that mode of life as well as
their aquatic mode. If there had been any land animals there to attack
them when they first ventured to leave the water, of course they would
have been prevented from ever rising. But there were no enemies and they
gradually developed lungs by which they were enabled to live continuously
out of water. At first they crawled about like spiders with all their
feet on the ground at once, but after awhile they learned to raise
themselves up on edge and finally to roll from one foot to another, and
so gradually adopted a new and wonderfully advanced mode of locomotion.
“They are still semiaquatic and amphibious, and they have both lungs and
gills. They do not bring forth their young alive, but the female lays
eggs in the water, the wealthy families having little tanks kept at a
proper temperature. The females of the poor and rougher classes simply go
to the nearest pond and deposit their eggs and leave them to their fate.
Nine times out of ten, however, the warmth of the water is sufficient to
hatch out the tiny stars which swim around in the water without any care
or bother to their parents. They then use only their gills for breathing,
but in a few weeks their lungs are developed enough to permit them to
crawl out on land and remain awhile. They do this daily and finally are
able to remain out continuously. Some of the lowest classes, the savages
as the are called, never lose their gills, but continue to be amphibious
all their lives. They spend their days on shore and mingle with the
rest, but at night retire to the water in which they sleep and eat,
feeding upon a tender and nutritious grass that grows in the water and
in marshy places. This grass also constitutes a considerable part of the
food of the better classes, but they generally cook it. In winter time
these savages burrow in the mud at the bottom of the ponds and marshes
and canals and go into a sort of torpid condition and remain there till
spring. The more advanced classes cannot do this, they remain out of the
water continuously after they are fairly weaned from it, and lose the use
of their gills so that they cannot breathe under water at all. So there
is almost as much difference between different varieties of these strange
people so far as civilization is concerned as between men and some of
their domestic animals.”
“Professor,” said I, “a moment ago you mentioned the canals. Our
astronomers have seen these and puzzled themselves greatly in regard to
them, now you can tell me all about them I am sure.”
“Yes, I intended to tell you about them, I understand their history well.
That’s where we sunk our money, or at least a great part of it.”
“What, in the canals?”
“Yes—that is, in their construction.”
“Do you mean that the Lunarians went and dug those canals on Mars?”
“I will explain. As I said awhile ago when our folks first visited Mars
the people were in a very barbarous state, but still seemed to have
some idea of bettering their condition. They were much impressed by the
superiority of the Lunarians and were anxious to get their advice as to
the best way of improving their own situation. The inhabitants then all
lived along the shores of the seas while the interior of the continents
were uninhabited and for the most part unexplored. The Lunarians by
the help of their wings and their repulsio-gravitation cars were in a
position to make the exploration and in a short time gained a general
knowledge of the topography of the planet. They found high land over both
the poles, but all the middle parts are low. There were numerous ponds
and lakes of fresh water, with marshy outlets to the seas, which are very
salty. There were no rivers except a few small ones in the high lands.
As the Martians were amphibious and had always been accustomed to salt
water, the Lunarians doubted whether they could live in the interior
where the water was fresh. But they saw that it would be necessary to
scatter the people away from the sea shore, divert their thoughts from
war by finding peaceful occupations for them, and to create artificial
wants for them since their very few natural wants were all bountifully
supplied with little or no effort on their part. The climate of Mars is
much like that of the temperate parts of the earth, but its polar regions
are never so cold nor its equatorial regions so hot.
“In summer time these people had no use for clothes, for it was warm
enough without them. In winter they had always gone into winter quarters
under water remaining in a torpid inactive condition till spring. When
they found the Lunarians never did so, they were anxious to imitate them.
But they could not stand the cold without clothes and houses artificially
heated. So some rude clothing was made of grass, and some huts built
under instructions from the Lunarians and the king and some of the better
classes undertook to keep alive, as they called it, all winter. They were
quick to perceive that they could thus add much time to their lives, for
the winters of Mars last some 300 days out of the 687 that constitute his
year. At first it was hard to work into the new way, but after one or two
generations had been kept from hibernating from childhood, it came to be
a second nature to their descendants, and now all the better classes have
outgrown it, only the savages, who are merely beasts of burden continue
to go into the torpid state and not all of these. This change of nature
in these people, made it essential to have houses and clothes and also
to secure food to be kept through the winter thus creating the wants
that would compel the people to employ their muscles and brains, and so
insure their cultivation and development. The chief food of the people
consisted of the grass I have mentioned which grows only in water and at
that time only in salt water. It grows in thick pulpy stems and is very
rich in sugar oil and gelatine. This vegetable product was obtainable
only along the sea shore in shallow water and in salt-water marshes
formed by the sea. The new way of life demanded at least one half more
food than the old for each person, and it also led to a rapid increase
in the population. These causes made it essential to devise some way
of increasing the production of food, the most obvious way being the
increase of the area of shallow salt water. This the king undertook to
do, but made small progress, for neither he nor his council knew anything
about engineering, or the management of such works.
“The Lunarians who had been observing matters and things, and studying
the situation very closely and shrewdly, now came forward with a
proposition for a very comprehensive scheme of public works—or rather
several schemes in one.”